Slow practice and tempo-management strategies in instrumental music learning: Investigating prevalence and cognitive functions

Practicing slowly is an intuitive and prevalent learning strategy among instrumental musicians. Nevertheless, little known about the psychological mechanisms of slow practice, or how rehearsing movements may support performance fast-tempo playing. This study investigated prevalence possible functions practice strategies. A total 256 adult musicians provided self-report ratings tempo-management use, musical background information, Musical Self-regulated Learning Questionnaire in online survey. Results indicate that practicing extremely common technique classical (99.45%) non-classical (89.12%) varying expertise, supporting both technical expressive goals, with more frequently reported. Principal components analysis identified three types as serving expressive, technical, preparatory functions. Expressive Slow Practice Technical were positively associated self-regulated learning, but not expertise across music genre groups. Preparatory was musicians, while it had no association self-regulation a negative expertise. These findings provide groundwork for further research exploring causal effects strategies on development various cultures.